Will You Remember Me?
by phantasmicPyromaniac
Summary: Huge spoilers for events pertaining to the first Dangan Ronpa game! Naegi's acceptance into an extraordinary school comes with unexpected changes to his perceptions about life. Nothing is black and white, and that is painted as clear as day. Happiness is bittersweet, as are all good things to be had. Success blooms from failure, and hope shines amid despair. Naegi/Ikusaba fiction.
1. Beautiful Morning

**Won't You Remember Me?**

by phantasmicPyromaniac

Summary: The class of Super Highschool Level students have just been admitted into the confines of Hope's Peak Academy following the most unnerving entrance ceremony anyone will ever face. Naegi makes a new friend who seems to know a good deal about what's happening around the Academy.

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Part 1

**Beautiful Morning**

Naegi practically leapt off his front doorstep as he bolted into the streets. The faint calls of his mother urging him to be careful hardly kept up with him, and his schoolbag thrashed behind him in the wake of his pace. _Hope's Peak, here I come! _he whooped mentally, his mouth preoccupied with supplying his body with oxygen, _I bet it looks even better than on the internet_. The sky shone blue, with no cloud in sight, and the sun began its ascent unimpeded. Its brilliance washed over the city, the trees reaching out to it with open palms of green.

He skidded to a stop at the edge of an approaching curb, teetering briefly before he could pull himself back onto safety. He idly bobbed from one foot to another as cars slowly rumbled past, looking out to the school's unmistakable silhouette against the early morning's horizon. It seemed to beckon to him, its relatively immense stature a powerful presence on its own. Not until Naegi rounded the corner and approached the school's gate's did he get hit by the gravity of his situation.

He stood before them with the envelope in his white-knuckled grip. With a start, he smoothed it out with sweaty hands and left it looking more worn than before, albeit with fewer wrinkles. Delicately tearing the edge off, which explicitly read "WAIT UNTIL FIRST MORNING TO READ", he was shocked to see a mass of glitter, confetti, and streamers spill out unceremoniously from the opening, forming an unimpressive pile at his feet. He looked into the interior of the envelope, frowning as he saw a single leaf of lined paper sitting among a clump of more colored bits of paper. Naegi quickly flipped the item over, making sure it had Hope's Peak Academy's elegant insignia on the upper right corner before fishing out the message, which happened to be largely underwhelming as well. The note was ripped across the bottom edge, implying that this scrap was part of a larger sheet. In messy chicken-scratch, accompanied by a doodle of a weird looking teddy-bear on the margin, it read:

"Dear Makota Naegi - No doubt you are nervous about your first day! While this is totally justified, let me be the first to tell you: the following years at this school will all seem like a dream when you look back! I can personally guarantee you won't believe this life was yours. Hell, even I'm surprised such a bland boy like yourself made it into a school of elites! Of course, as you've no doubt heard, everyone's taken to calling you the Super Highschool Level "Good Luck", so I suppose your winning the lottery is a pretty telling accomp-"

The rest of the increasingly taunting message was cut off, where the messy rip made the sentence utterly illegible. At the edge of the page was a closing scribble: "With love, your homeroom teacher".

Naegi flinched at the blatant misspelling of his name, which pretty much set the tone for the rest of the note. Very little of it seemed to be motivational, and in fact the overall effect was the planting of a seed of doubt in the back of his head. The whole thing was so unprofessional, so half-assed, and the homeroom teacher had used such a fancy envelope to relay..._this_. It was nothing short of absurd for a welcome letter. Throwing his shoulders back, however, he looked back up at the towering spire that was the main building, and let himself be washed over with awe.

"I really ended up at an amazing place. Is this something I can really handle?" he found himself murmuring. He stood there like a statue, mulling over thoughts in his head. He shook his head, suddenly, deciding that plenty of other students remained relatively anonymous despite their undoubtedly fantastic abilities. As the letter said, Naegi came here on the graces of Luck, and as such he was one of the first to be recognized on a certain bulletin board on the web. _With a start like that_, he pondered further, _I'm already two steps ahead of the game!_

Taking a deep breath, and with melodramatic determination one wouldn't think is needed before stepping into a school for the first time, Naegi got his legs to work. The absurd trail of glitter and confetti followed him with each step forward - he didn't have the heart to toss away his first message from his homeroom teacher. She took the time to address him, he decided, and at the end of the day that counted for something. He came before the alarmingly empty entrance hall, and read the clock that hung overhead. _Ten past seven...!_ He thought with a start, _I came way too early!_

Naegi reassumed his statue-like stance, nervously scanning the facade. It was nearly an hour until his classmates would arrive for the entrance ceremony, and simply waiting here at the entrance didn't seem very exciting. _I know, I'll just explore the school, get my bearings!_ With a grin pulling at the edge of his mouth, he stepped into the depths of Hope's Peak Academy - once his foot slapped against the checkered floor of the hallway, his head was overtaken with a powerful nausea that threatened to send him toppling. He fell against a wall and slid down, his head spinning as his vision swirled into blackness.

And just as suddenly, he came to in a sitting position, gasping and breathing hard. He looked around himself, relieved to see that no one was around to witness the embarrassing display. He cautiously climbed up the wall with both hands, pausing twice on the way up to shake off the aftershocks of dizziness following his ascent. _What happened...? I did eat enough, didn't I? I hope I don't have to go home on the first day!_

He scanned the walls and located a clock, much less grandiose than the one at the entrance, but ostentatious in its own manner. An entire twenty minutes had passed. Naegi gaped at the reading and rushed to his bag to check on its contents. With a sigh of relief at his seemingly unmolested person, he shouldered it and strode around the dizzyingly lighted halls until it was time to join the unmistakable sound of footsteps emanating from where he entered. Excitement rushed through his head, and he ran out into the sunlight, where he was met with a small army of prodigies thronging within the boundaries of the school gates.

Students of every shape and size were present, some whose talents were more easily guessable, and others who he would have passed on the street without so much as an amiable smile. Naegi felt himself breathing more and more heavily as his eyes passed over familiar faces, almost all of them from magazines and articles broadcasting their contributions to mankind.

Hachime-sama, as he has come to be known, is a champion lumberjack. He's said to wield his axe like a golf club, and cuts down the mightiest trees in fewer than three strokes. With an incredibly large physique for a highschool freshman, he towered over the others, and was beaten in height only by one other white-haired person whom he didn't recognize.

Mamoto Tsetito, a fierce debater and widely-respected politician, was also easily identifiable in the crowd. Her clothes are always prim, simple, business-like and bright-red. Also recognized as the Flame-Tempered Tongue, she's famous for standing in front of several powerful CEO's at once for 12 hours, convincing each one to either drastically modify or shut down their harmful enterprises, such as power plants, certain tobacco brands, and many smaller companies which trailed in the shadow of the giants. She did not sit, drink, eat, or even pause to take a breath - the only time she requested a glass of water was to throw it in the face of a particularly disrespectful bastard who decided to try and take her head-on (very nearly literally).

Those kinds of people were all gathered here in front of him, ready to take on a rigorous education and skyrocket into success upon graduating! Best of all, Naegi would be there with them, an ant among trees, basking in their knowledge and perhaps even befriend his way into a circle. _Who knows, maybe I'll even unlock a true talent while I'm here. One that isn't just being lucky._

He shouldered past a group of particularly chatty people, and made his way to the front of the crowd just as the clock chimed to signal that it was 8 o'clock. A familiar series of tones washed over the students from hidden surround speakers, causing an immediate hush broken only by excited whispers. Everything was silent for a moment, and suddenly a column of smoke erupted from within the entrance hall, causing everyone including Naegi to step back several paces in alarm. Someone behind him whooped loudly, but was quickly shut up by someone else, who seemed to represent the unnerved opinion of the majority. It billowed out in offensive crests, carrying with it the stench of fuel and burnt material.

Emerging out of the smoke was a girl who rang a bell in Naegi's head - he had seen her before...but where? He kept his eyes fixed on her as she strutted toward the front with a leisurely, meandering walk that eventually landed her a few paces away from the mass of students. Her gaze was blank as she scanned across those immediately in front of her, yet Naegi was certain that she paused for an instant when she passed by him, continuing on with her unimpressed demeanor. The air around her seemed condensed, almost suffocatingly so, and at the same time it was as if a void were enveloping her, stealing away all sound and connection to the physical world. Naegi knew immediately that she would be trouble, but didn't know how. His attempts to back away were foiled by a line of transfixed boys trying to get a better view of her.

"Whoa, she's hot!"

"Hey, take off that shirt! Toss it here!"

"You pigs, shut up and listen!"

"Boys are disgusting, I can't believe this school is co-ed!"

The girl snorted, clearly unfazed by the commentary that followed her appearance. She seemed lost in thought for a few moments, and then abruptly put the megaphone she had been holding behind her back up to her mouth. Swelling her chest with a dramatic inhale, the girl's voice boomed out, forcing Naegi to shield his ears as feedback resonated mercilessly.

"Hell-OOOOOOOO Hope's Peak Academy!" she called out, her teeth flashing bright and white. Her audience remained in stunned silence briefly, then cheers broke out, the cloud of uncertainty lifted from their collective spirits.

"Welcome to the nest of brilliance, hope and success!"

"No doubt you sorry lot are wondering, who the hell _is_ this fine chick? Yeahhh, I see you whispering there," she continued with a pointed stare, eyebrow quirking up at a circle of girls who jumped in unison. She snickered nastily and dismissed them with a blink.

"You'll find out when the time comes for you to know. For now, let's play a quick game!" exclaimed the girl, her free hand resting on her hip casually as she blared out her announcements. She lowered the megaphone and made her wolfish smirk obvious as groans rang out from the crowd. She tapped her foot rapidly as though thinking about what to say on the spot, then continued.

"First off, let me disqualify everyone who received a letter from Hope's Peak Academy! These boys and girls don't get to play with the rest of you," she instructed as she strode toward Naegi, grabbing his the front of his jacket and pulling him back with her with surprising strength for one with such a delicate body. _Huh? How did she kno-...?_ His thoughts were interrupted as she threw him past her and dismissed him with a quick smack on the butt.

"Don't be shy, fess up to your indecency!"

Naegi couldn't help but blush at the intimate contact. _Just who is this girl? Where's the headmaster?_ He regained his balance, turned around and noticed movement among the assembled students, from where quite a few distinguished individuals shouldered their way to the front to join his side. Quickly scanning, he didn't recognize any faces except for Tsetito's, and he avoided eye contact with her for the time being. He didn't want to be distracted while the rest of this weird fiasco played out.

"That everyone?" chirped the girl's voice, "I'm counting... sixty students out of the five hundred possible candidates." Confused outcries immediately followed this, and she covered her mouth as she giggled audibly into the speaker, "What's with that? We've not even started our game! Everybody, right hand up!"

Grudgingly complying to her prompts, all of those who were not "disqualified" from the game raised their hands, bobbed to and fro, and hummed along with a surprisingly pleasant tune the strange girl was singing. Once again, the students who were so wound up only minutes before had been put to ease by the soothing tones of her voice.

"Yeah, just like that... now sing with me..." she whispered softly, daintily fluttering her half-closed eyelids. Naegi noticed her quivering. _She must be nervous. I know I'd be if I were talking to such a big group of people._ He listened attentively as he heard her open her mouth and take a breath. Her voice came out silky: "Sayonaraaaa... sayoranaa..." and all eyes were on the disqualified students as they repeated her words back at her.

Her voice changed completely all of a sudden, losing its singsong lilt and taking on a sharp, unpleasant characteristic. "Now get the fuck out of here before I call security on your asses. You're now trespassing on private school grounds."

Everything stopped. Naegi's hands began sweating profusely, and he struggled to breathe. _I... I'm trespassing...? What's going on? We just got here._ He looked to his sides, and every student looked just as distressed as he felt, adding to his alarm. Only one girl remained collected, in fact tapping her foot impatiently as if awaiting another part of the performance that she knew and wanted to be over with.

He studied her face, trying to glean something from her annoyed expression, and she met his stare with a flicker of curiosity. He jumped faintly, and offered her a small smile, fighting his urge to look away in embarrassment. To his surprise, her expression softened and a smile played at her lips as well, accompanied by an amiable nod. She frowned as Naegi edged over next to her, tensing up and squaring her feet. He didn't notice, however, keeping his eyes on the slender, blonde-haired girl. His voice was at a hoarse whisper, making sure he wasn't heard by anyone else other than the black-haired, sturdy girl.

"Do you know what's going on here? Why are we being kicked out?" he asked sidelong at her, flinching as more sharp words erupted out of the megaphone. She shook her head, whispering back.

"You've got it backwards. She's not talking to us, so we're safe for now."

"How can you be sure? This girl is absolutely unpredictable. I hardly remember how we got into this situation."

"Relax and watch, call it a gut feeling." she muttered, "Stay here next to me and you'll be fine."

While he couldn't understand what her reassurance was based on, Naegi was grateful to be around a beacon of confidence. She reassumed her previous casual stance, and pointed her eyes away from him, crossing her arms as she spoke after a short pause:

"So what's your talent, anyway? Can't imagine you're much good at anything physical, with posture like that."

Her words stung, but Naegi chose to reply with civility, despite feeling more than a little flustered.

"I'm the Super Highschool Level 'Good Luck'. I was chosen by-"

She cut in, piercing him with a cool stare.

"Oh, the lottery? So you've no exceptional qualities, nor any skills that can be considered outstanding?"

His face flushed at the question, and turned away, annoyed and embarrassed now. _She's doing this on purpose. This was a bad idea._

"That's one way of looking at it, I guess. I'll be over here."

He grit his teeth as he began walking away, but a firm hand caught his shoulder and kept him in place. Alarm rang out in his head, and he shut his eyes in anticipation of a punch to the face. _I offended her, now I'm gonna get it...!_ Rather than forcefully wheeling him around, however, she tugged at him.

"The sooner you wear that fact like armor, the sooner you'll be invulnerable to offhand jabs. Sack up and stay by me. Things look like they're getting ugly."

Naegi stumbled behind her indignantly, and strained his voice to make himself heard over the angry voices of the students. He could feel his affection for this girl rapidly dwindling into nothing.

"What's _your_ talent? I only have your mannerisms to go by."

"Mukuro Ikusaba, best damn soldier you'll ever have the pleasure of meeting! Couldn't you tell by looking at my body? Oh, and right now, we should be backing away."

Naegi's retort was cut off by a furious yell from the crowd. _I wasn't looking at her body. _The students were in an uproar, with voices and complaints cutting each other off. Little by little they advanced, step by step, and the aggression in the air only seemed to be accumulating.

"What are we going to do for school? This opening ceremony is three weeks later than all the others!"

"I chose Hope's Peak over a top-tier academy!"

"Is this some kind of sick joke!?"

"Where's the headmaster? You're not the headmaster! You can't do this!"

"I had the letter, but I left it at home! Let me go get it!"

Naegi felt afraid for his life for the first time, and he craned his neck to look for a safe route off of the school grounds. An opening down the right side of the crowd made itself obvious, and he started for it, but Ikusaba-san seized his wrist and whispered, with her lips brushing his ear.

"Trust me when I say you don't want to do that. Let's follow the others inside."

Despite his frantic struggles against her vice-like grip, Ikusaba-san dragged him into the main hallway without so much as a skip in her pace. Naegi didn't know at what point the main doors became clear of smoke, but the air was much cleaner than it was before. Those who were disqualified from the "game" were gathered here, filling the halls with echoes of concern and despair. The girl pushed him against a locker and held him there for a minute, letting him flail and yell until finally he got tired of resisting her seemingly limitless strength. _She's nuts! I have to go home. This is borderline kidnapping._ Ikusaba-san stared down into his eyes for a second and inclined her head, studying him before asking.

"Yes, I remember now," she started, her voice softening, "You're _the_ Super Highschool Level 'Good Luck'. Makoto Naegi. People have been talking about y-"

Her head turned sharply at the sound of the main doors closing, breaking eye contact with him, yet not letting go of his shoulders. The blonde-haired girl was leaning against them, breathing heavily, with a look of blissful satisfaction painted on her face. Her chest rose and fell haphazardly until it regulated to a healthy pace. Straightening herself out, she sighed contentedly and looked straight at Ikusaba-san.

"Have you ever seen so much despair, all in one concentrated area?" she asked her, arms wrapping around herself amidst quivers. "It's highly unlikely that they'll have any successful careers at all, if they're wasting their talents at low-tier college-prep public schools. Ohhhh, I outdid myself this time...!"

She shot a look behind her, and Naegi followed her stare to a clock which read 08:20 AM. He was shocked, it felt like a full hour's worth of events had transpired.

"We're a bit ahead of schedule, but that's okay!" she called out to the attentive group, both hands on her hips. "The police will be here soon to clear out the rabble, and while that happens we're going to tour the school to familiarize ourselves. Welcome to Hope's Peak High Academy, boys and girls! I'm Junko Enoshima, and you are all the selected candidates who will be attending classes here for the next four years. Let's all shine bright with the hope-rich rays of the sun, and make the most of this beautiful morning!"

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End of Part 1

**Author Notes:** If you've gotten this far, then congratulations, you've just read my very first entry to my very first fanfiction! This has been inspired by the Dangan Ronpa IF, and noticed a severe lack of Makoto Naegi/Mukuro Ikusaba on the internet, so now I've taken matters into my own hands.

Technically, this is only a writing exercise that got out of hand, but if this receives good feedback, then I'll happily upload the consecutive parts with regularity. This fanfic will be updated no matter how [un]popular it is.

And of course, suggestions and critique are much appreciated.


	2. The Dashful Youth

**The Dashful Youth**

Part 2

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The girl calling herself Junko Enoshima led the students through the various departments of the school, first taking them outside and showcasing the wide track and field section. It was here where they all first seemed to genuinely display excitement, with state-of-the-art equipment for just about every sport imaginable made available, both clean and maintained. Not unlike kids pressing their faces against storefront windows, they swarmed over the racks, chattering incessantly. Naegi, however, remained fairly uninterested for two distinct reasons.

The first was his disinclination toward sports. He participated in group activities during school, sure, but he was no star player, nor did he do poorly enough to be looked at with scorn. He simply floated around and functioned properly, with no outstanding performance. Blocked an arbitrary runner here, missed a shot there, and just moved the games along; the sense of anonymity was somehow magnified when he was active. Average of the average...

The second and more pressing issue was the feeling that he was being monitored. Ikusaba-san left him alone as soon as the tour began, and puzzlement filled his head as to why she went through all the trouble of pacifying him and taking him inside if she was just going to walk off at the first real chance to talk. In addition, he could almost feel her gaze boring into him, giving the distinct impression that she wanted to talk with him after all. Despite that, she always seemed to be turning away as soon as he'd look in her direction. _ I wonder what's going through her head? She doesn't seem hostile or dangerous, and yet she certainly isn't sociable either_. Keeping an eye on her, he managed to gather that much, at least.

He noticed others try to take up conversation with her, but all she'd only reciprocate with the same curious expression she had given him at the entrance ceremony. The first hints of a smile would play at her face, yet by the time it bloomed, she'd be met with either the back of someone's head, or an apology and a hasty retreat. To see her deflate and ease back into her default blank expression made Naegi very much want to walk over and keep her company, although the memory of her powerful hands keeping him pinned to the lockers as she pierced through him with her large, blue eyes discouraged him immensely. He had no choice but to keep his distance.

After several of the more athletic students finished with their demonstrations for the rest of the group, Junko brought everyone to attention and led them inside just as the blaring of sirens pealed through the air outside the bounds of the school walls. A chorus of outrage, fear and pain followed shortly after, and Naegi's blood ran cold at the thought of what may be transpiring just outside of their view. Surprisingly, no one questioned her authority and immediately fell into line. Gesturing down the hall, she suddenly called out, "Who's hungry? The cafeteria is just around this way, and I'll bet you're all just aching for something to bite into after all that excitement!"

Nodding to herself as a nervous murmur of consensus passed through the students, she flashed a grin and beckoned them on toward a flight of stairs, leading them up into the second floor. _ Uh...? The cafeteria is on the first floor. I even looked in and walked around the place!_ Naegi stared after Junko with gradually fading trust. Given the context of the morning's events, he was absolutely certain that she was doing this as a joke only she could possibly be in on. He trailed the girl up the flight of stairs nonetheless, and pretty soon the atmosphere changed, in large part due to the hallway lighting, into a quieter, moodier one.

The second floor featured changing rooms, an oddly-located pool, a warm, quiet library, and a collection of classrooms. It was here that the bookworms and the studious explored for a time before being shepherded up into the third and fourth floors, all with specialized rooms to cater to the interests of the eclectic group. Naegi was paying less and less attention as time went on. He generally disliked tours, and preferred to discover things on his own time. Coupled with the constant walking, stopping, and standing for variable amounts of time, he found the entire endeavor to be tedious; he yearned for something to pull him out of his stupor. Ikusaba was the one who finally broke the seemingly stunted progression of time, suddenly appearing next to him.

A chill ran down his spine, and he swallowed hard as he glanced over at her face. She made no effort to look at him, and instead kept her eyes trained on the babbling form of Junko, who was in the process of introducing a strange machine which looked like a chair with exaggerated armrests. Attached to it were what appeared to be a dangling bowl-shaped headset, and a monitor suspended in front of where the face would be looking. It looked very crude, as if the design were based off an idle doodle, and the plethora of cables that were connected to the back of the seat only accentuated the absurdity of the contraption.

"... and with those ID cards, you'll have access to the school's front door, though unless given special permission, you cannot enter before 7 AM in the morning, nor leave before 4 PM each afternoon! It's very important that you do not approach the school doors without proper identification, nor at improper times. In addition, it's absolutely prohibited to try and enter with another student's ID card. The consequences for such fraudulence is harsh, and any bastard caught doing so will be dealt with accordingly."

She paused and took a long breath, her brilliant eyes darting from face to face. A hand went up in the crowd, and with a raised eyebrow she pointed a finger at it.

"Talk quick, mud! There's a whole lot of students that need scanning."

A timid voice raised in reply, and Naegi couldn't tell if it belonged to a boy or a girl: "Uhm, wouldn't it be fairly unsafe for anybody to even touch that... what'd you call it? Sign-In Chair? There are exposed wires everywhere, and the circuitry looks like it's rubbing against the full-metal design directly from the power supply- " the student's voice was cut off by Junko's hysterical laughter, a bout which had her bent over and slapping her knee. Stunned silence accompanied the melodious, wicked outburst. Straightening up and wiping a tear from her eye after about a minute or so, she waved off the question with one hand and beckoned somebody from the front with the other.

Ikusaba groaned and shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose and muttering to herself, "Tell me she isn't actually expecting me to go anywhere near that idiotic hunk of..." Her voice trailed off when she noticed Naegi looking at her, and frowned as she asked, rather flatly, "What?"

He flinched faintly, but maintained composure even under the pressure of her attention. Clearing his throat, "Uh, hi! You ran off before we could actually talk about anything, and so..." He paused briefly as she raised her eyebrows at him, yet he pressed on without quite knowing what he was going for. "You seem pretty familiar with this school, and Enoshima-san as well. Do you know her outside of Hope's Peak Academy...?"

Naegi stopped talking altogether after that; he saw something feral flash in her eyes, and before he knew what was happening, her hand had clapped over his mouth. She looked over her shoulder to make sure nobody was aware, then leaned in with a hiss.

"I suggest you quit entertaining that line of questioning, kid. This is my first time here, and I don't know any of these idiots huddled around the mystery witch. Got it?"

Their eyes were locked with intensity that practically radiated into the surrounding air. Uncertainty clashed with anger between them, and it was getting to Naegi. The moment ended when he pulled her hand off his face to reveal gritted teeth. _I've never had to deal with this kind of situation before... This girl is out of control!_ _I need to keep as far away from her as possible, this is only my first day here_. Unimpressed, Ikusaba continued to stare him down with a look that could peel paint, but he shouldered that off too.

"You seemed so nice, Ikusaba-san, but knowing how to smile and look pretty doesn't count for anything if you're just going to be a huge bully to those who try to talk to you!"

Her face blanched and appeared disarmed at the mixed remark. Seeing her flinch back made Naegi regret his words immediately, yet he just couldn't take them back without feeling like less of a person, so he opted to walk away once again. Brow furrowed, he shouldered past ogling students and attempted to blend into the crowd ahead. Annoyed comments floated after him as he bumped into variously shaped students, and yelps sounded out whenever Naegi stepped over a patch of uneven floor.

When he came to the front of the onlooking mob, he was met with Junko kicking and yelling at the chair to "Hurry up and print out the card". As if obeying her prompts, a flat, rectangular object ejected from a slot in the armrest, and the girl greedily fished it out to peer at its detailed surface. Tapping a button, the opaque surface suddenly lit up with text and a picture of the student sitting in the chair, and beeped at a quick yet steady rate. Satisfied with the product, Junko tossed it to the seated girl and pulled her off to make room for the next.

This process repeated itself until everyone had had their experience on the Chair. Naegi was one of the first to step up voluntarily, having been charmed by the idea of replacing his rather plain cellphone with a futuristic one; Junko had pulled out her own ID and made a face-to-face call with the first student to demonstrate its capabilities. She threw it down on the ground, viciously stomped on it, and even held a magnet next to it without the display distorting even slightly. Naegi practically wiggled in the bulky seat, grinning wide as the headset lowered and fastened around his skull, vibrating slightly and lulling him into a sleepy state, though he managed to maintain consciousness long enough to feel a pinprick at the base of his neck.

His body felt hot, and the monitor before him flickered with a dizzying display of colorful, cartoony animations featuring a silly-looking bear. Naegi's head swam thickly, and keeping his eyes open was a monumental task. Suddenly, the vibrating stopped, and he was jarred to attention by Junko's all-too familiar kicking on the Sign-In chair, which was in the process of dispensing the ID. Casually slapping the headset off, she grabbed him by the collar of his hoodie and tossed him off to the side with the other three students who had gone before him.

Stumbling next to them, he ran his fingers over the back of his neck where the stinging sensation had been only moments ago. The faintest bump greeted his fingertips, and it felt like it was starting to irritate already. While it alarmed him, Naegi ignored it for the time being, and instead looked down at his prize. Investigating the rest of the features of his ID, an application called caught his attention. _What's this...?_ He tapped on it, and gasped out loud at its contents. _Where did they get this much information?_ I _don't even know all this!_ His blood type, his weight, clothing sizes, and school records were only a tiny fraction of the vast dossier, but there was no way this information could have fallen into the hands of this school - he didn't even fill out any paperwork prior to arriving.

As he nervously waded through a detailed outline of his life's accomplishments, a little blip called "Roster" flashed occasionally in the upper corner, alerting him to a new classmate being inducted onto his "team", as it was called there. Eventually, 14 out of the 15 possible spots in class 1-D were filled. He had only gotten through half of the .bio file before one of his classmates introduced himself, pulling him away. Naegi was grateful for the distraction, soon becoming enraptured by his charisma. All his classmates appeared friendly enough, though a couple came off as hostile towards his intentions to converse. The mix of skills and personalities was quite unexpected, with both the physical and the mental aspects covered superbly.

Most unexpected of all was the induction of Maizono, the idol who attended the same middle school that he had. She hadn't noticed him yet, being on the other side of the gathered group, but he could faintly make out frantic head movements - is she looking for someone? Naegi decided to walk over and give her a friendly greeting before leaving her be, but as soon as he collected himself, his ID started flashing, drawing his attention to it once more. The 15th student had been decided, and Naegi promptly tapped on the display, eagerly bringing up the student's profile. Everything stopped. A familiar chill ran down his back as he slowly looked up and across the hallway at the Sign-In Chair, disbelieving of his luck. _No... no no no...! Why this group, out of the four!?_

In the arms of the absurd metal contraption sat Mukuro Ikusaba, who was in the process of throwing off the headset and glaring at Junko. Ikusaba grabbed her arm and pulled Junko down to hiss into her ear, jerking a thumb at her own neck where, Naegi assumed, she had felt the pinprick as well. Junko rolled her eyes and replied with an offhand gesture, patting her shoulder and pushing her in the direction of class 1-D. Ikusaba bristled fiercely, shrugging off the girl's hand and striding towards Naegi's group with long swings of her legs. She stopped mid-step and turned around sharply with an outstretched hand, catching her student ID as it sailed towards the back of her head. Without skipping a beat, she pivoted on her heel and continued on her way, tapping on it furiously. Something she saw on there made her widen her eyes briefly, and a smile lit up her face before Junko's voice soured it once more. Naegi stayed behind the white-haired, muscular girl - the wrestler - as he watched Ikusaba join their ranks.

The familiarity between the two disturbed him; only one other student had the gall to touch her arm, and he was rewarded with a solid fist to the nose as she screamed at him not to try any funny business. To see Ikusaba be more aggressive with her contact and walk away virtually unharmed confused him to the point of frustration.

"Student body of Hope's Peak Academy! Meet your classmates, learn their faces well!" sang out the voice of Junko, "It is with this group that you will be studying for the entirety of this school year, so I hope you all get off on the right foot!"

Naegi could practically feel his heart in his throat, beating furiously at her words. I'm spending the rest of my school year with Mukuro Ikusaba, probably the most hostile person I've met in my life! He swallowed hard as the situation set in.

"Your ID's are going to enable chatrooms later today for talking with your classmates for tonight's assignment. You are not, however, to talk to any other students from the other classes via these chatrooms. In fact, the feature to do so isn't even available! The purpose of this school is to ensure your success, and if you are bogged down by others who have no idea what is happening in your classroom environment, then you're wasting your valuable time! I can promise that much."

Giving off an exaggerated yawn, Junko continued, "But enough of all that, you can read all of these guidelines in your ID's. For now, let me give you your first take-home schoolwork. Your task tonight is to meet and talk to each of your dashing fellow classmates. Learn why they're here, what they like, how they spend their day or whatever, and bring a sheet of paper detailing all of that to school tomorrow."

She clapped her hands together, offering an unnervingly sweet smile, "The time is now 12:47 PM. You all have special permission from me to leave the school grounds early, but you are free to snatch food from the cafeteria and linger for a little. Now get out of here, I'm sick of looking at you."

With that, she turned around and walked down the hallway away from them, eventually disappearing behind a massive set of double-doors which slammed shut behind her as soon as she stepped in. Just like that, Junko unceremoniously abandoned the students on the 4th floor of what was quite possibly the least conventional school they would ever attend. Naegi was once again left with a strong pang of uncertainty as he followed the rest of the school down the length of the school. He didn't stop to eat at the cafeteria, and instead rushed over to the main entrance. His fingers wrapped over the door's handle as he ran, but instead of open air greeting his face, an unnaturally solid hardwood slab smashed his face._ Ow! What the..?_ His head spun at a dizzying pace, and he blinked away tears as he looked down to test the exit once more.

The handles rattled in his grip, unyielding to his attempts to open the door. Panic washed over him as the possibility of imprisonment made itself very real, and he renewed his attempts to open the alarmingly non-budging entrance with even more desperation. He put a foot on one door and pulled on the other handle with both hands with all his might.

They remained closed.

* * *

End of Part 2


	3. Intermission 1

**Junko Cam**

_In the headmaster's office..._ - 12:51 PM

* * *

A small, square monitor was the only source of light in the sparsely furnished room - it sat perched on the edge of a large, elegant desk, its surface polished and lustrous even in the dim lighting. Before the monitor sat a squirming figure, its arms and legs tightly bound to a student's wooden deskchair which contrasted sharply against the distinguished air of the room, and over its mouth was a strip of cloth. Draped over the shoulders of the figure were Junko's porcelain-white arms, her fingers playfully flicking at the square jaw which annoyedly jerked away.

"Come on, headmaster," she purred throatily, "Lighten up. Everything is falling into place! It's exactly how I envisioned it..."

Two dilated pupils stared into the monitor from within bagged eyes, looking on in horror at the various faces passing in and out of view of the cameras installed on the stairwells.

"Look at them," she breathed wondrously, "Sixty beautiful, amazing souls just waiting for a chance to shine..."

Junko began quivering blissfully and dramatically sighed as she rested her head on the figure's shoulder, giggling at the reactionary flinch from their contact. She perked up suddenly.

"Oh! There's someone I'd like you to see, let me find out which camera they're in..."

Her arms still resting on shoulders, she reached out to the monitor and tapped away at the keyboard, pulling up various feeds until finally she went "Aha..!" as she froze a frame and brought a single face into focus.

"Do you recognize her, headmaster?" she whispered into his ear. He had stiffened the moment his eyes registered what the monitor was showing him, his entire body taut and unmoving save for his trembling throat from which a faint whimper was rising up.

Without warning, he let loose an anguished, muffled cry, swinging his head from side to side and striking Junko on the side of her jaw with his head. The force of his sudden struggles left the girl reeling back with her eyes wide open in surprise, and one of the chair legs snapped under the weight of his angled crash against the floor. He fell on his side and immediately began scraping his face against the carpet, leaving the cloth hanging around his neck.

The headmaster retched out a mouthful of dry oatmeal onto the floor, coughing violently, and looked up at Junko with a contorted, beet-red face as he screamed anew, "_You promised! You bastard, you promised me...!_" His face sank into the carpet as he broke down into sobs, moaning out loud, "_Nooo...!_"

Junko's mouth curved upward into a white crescent that cut across her face from ear to ear, her still-wide eyes now painted with a darker glow.

"Fuckin' _there we go_!" she yelled out with an uncannily harsh, shrill voice that seemed to rumble out of her throat, "That's what this is all about - look at you, oh my god. That despair, that despair! It's oozing out of you, critical hit!"

She pounced on him, straddling his arm as she leaned down to better hear his weak groans. Grabbing his cheek and tugging gently, she whispered sweetly, "Speak up, shitstain..!"

His sobs quieted enough for his words to be heard, but even then Junko had to lean in and stick a pigtail in his face to interpret them properly.

"The only reason... I agreed... was the protection you'd give my family... If I knew you'd do this, I'd have stayed... I'd have fucking stayed and spent the last few years bringing up my daughter..." he looked up once more into Junko's face, but his pride and resolve had been left on the floor. "Please... let her go... leave her out of this..."

Junko straightened up, revelling in the situation she had put together before propping her elbow on her knee and the side of her head on her hand with an almost disinterested expression.

"At this point, I don't think you want your baby girl dropping out of Hope's Peak Academy... If you love her as much as you say you do, then you'll take my word on that."

Just then, Mukuro stepped in through the doors, contaminating the ambiance with fluorescence from the outside hallway. Junko meekly threw her legs off to one side, crossed them, and blinked innocently at her sister in an attempt to downplay the disgusted look being shot towards them. Having noticed the broken chair leg and the headmaster's uncharacteristically undignified posture, however, Mukuro began walking forward slowly, crackling her knuckles in front of her as she did so.

In a low voice, "Don't tell me he tried to escape again?" Her unflinching predatory gaze washed over him as she neared, but he simply remained face-down and unmoving, save for the occasional sob.

Junko waved her off casually, chirping, "I'm just introducing him to one of our students! He's rather fond of this young lady, so I figured I may as well help him keep tabs, you know?" As she spoke, she pulled the chair up to stand on three legs, haphazardly attaching the fourth leg (still attached to the headmaster) to the splintered stump where it had broken off.

She turned around and saw that her sister had frozen in place, her brows furrowed and eyes stretched wide as they flitted between the face on the monitor and the headmaster on the ground.

"Wha- you don't mean... you broke the one condition we were obligated to agree to? Oh my god, Junko, what the fuck!? Are you fucking crazy? This whole thing could be called off if they find out that you- "

Junko cut her off with a sharp _shhht!_, leaving them both in an uncomfortably silent stare-down for a moment before she giggled and dispelled it for herself. She hopped onto the surface of the desk and kicked her legs back and forth as she smiled smugly at Mukuro.

"Don't worry, sis! I know what I'm doing. You know how you can help? Keep your pretty little nose out of this- whoa ho ho! _Temper!_" she swiftly ducked as a large flower-pot sailed past her head and crashed into the wall behind her. She hazarded a glance backwards - porcelain shards, rotten soil, and splintered wood had rained down on the unfortunate form of the headmaster, though he showed no indication of distress that Junko could see. Looking back to Mukuro, she called out with indignation in her voice when she saw her sister stalking away with a finger raised high.

"Where you goin'? You just got here! Don't you want some lunch, sis? We can go down to the cafeteria, get some twice-cooked pork. The storeroom's got plenty, and I've got the key! Whaddaya say?"

Her sister, however, was already at the door. She paused briefly to shoot another scathing look at Junko, and said, "I lost my appetite, I'm getting the hell out of here. What did you inject me with, anyway?" Mukuro rubbed the back of her neck with a finger.

"It itches like hell - you better not have infected me with anything! Unlike you, I use my brain to function. If I notice _anything_ out of the ordinary happening to my body, I'll hunt you down and make you regret it."

Junko puffed out her cheeks with mock anger as she watched Mukuro disappear from sight.

"What a jerk! I'm hungry, and I bet she is too. My sis' is wayyy too tsun-tsun. If she wants anyone to like her, she'll have to drop that and say what she really wants. Hmph!"

She walked over to the door and shut it, restoring gloominess to the office.

"There we go, much better... Shall we play spot-the-daughter to pass the time? I can just rewind these feeds, we've got hours of fun on our hands. You need stimulation to keep healthy and sane, Kirigiri-sama..."

**Mukuro Cam**

_4th Floor, Main Hallway…_ - 12:49 PM

* * *

_That boy, I swear!_ Ikusaba thought irritably to herself as she descended the stairs amidst the crowd of excitedly chattering students, _Where does he get off, calling someone like _me_ a bully? I fucking _eat_ bullies for snack._ Her face reddened as she recalled Naegi's comment in its entirety, but shook it away as soon as she realized it.

Tension was squeezing her head in a vice at this point. She hated having to slow herself down for others, especially when it came to walking and stairs, and soon she began breathing heavily as knees bumped from behind and her toes scraped over heels. Just two more flights… relax, Mukuro… She clenched and unclenched her fists, and focused on the messy pink bun in front of her, making superhuman effort not to start an avalanche of bodies to get to her destination quickly.

After what felt like an eternity, which in reality was only a minute or two at the most, she arrived at the first floor and made way for the cafeteria, sure to find her mark there._ Boys generally enjoy stuffing their faces and smelling bad, right? This place satisfies both criteria…_ Mukuro gruffly pushed past a heart-faced girl who was in her way, giving off an overly sweet smile. She squeaked in alarm as the powerful hand displaced her.

Stepping into the cafeteria, Mukuro quickly scanned the surrounding tables, keeping her eye out for absurd brown hair-antennas. To her dismay, only a large, ridiculous afro could be easily distinguished, and she decided to try her luck elsewhere with a snort. Pivoting on her heel, she turned to leave. _Damnit, where is he?_

She bumped into a tray stacked high with a plethora of creamy mashed potatoes, topped with gravy and green onion garnish - a work of art made possible by the dedicated cafeteria staff. All of it was now smeared across the chest of one of the largest boys she had ever seen. They both froze at the same time, and her eyes widened in alarm as she realized what happened.

_Oh fuck! I'm not going to be very popular if I'm this clumsy in crowds_, she thought to herself, opening her mouth to apologize - she genuinely felt bad, and knew she'd be upset if someone were to do the same to her.

Before she could utter anything, however, two meaty hands hit her shoulders, knocking her back a couple steps. As soon as his hands connected, all remorse left her, leaving only an efficient machine where Mukuro had stood only a moment before. The edges of her vision reddened, and she couldn't make out what he was yelling - she only read his body language, and it was screaming violent intentions. He moved forward to push her again, but she was ready this time. She fanned both arms outward and took a half-step back with her rear foot as she did so, unbalancing him and causing him to spread his arms apart awkwardly.

Not stopping to think, she quickly flicked the tip of her boot into his crotch with her front foot. He bent over, howling in pain, and she took the opportunity to grab the back of his head and ram her knee into his nose. The force of the impact jolted up her leg and throughout her body, sobering her suddenly. _That should be enough of a warning._

She watched him stagger back in a daze, clutching his face and groaning audibly. He snapped out of it when he ran into a table, but the confrontation wasn't over yet - his narrowed gaze locked on to her and he rushed forward with an arm cocked back, telegraphing his next move.

Ikusaba covered the threatened side of her head with a flexed arm and circled in with his swing, letting his fist glance harmlessly off her forearm and slamming her rear elbow into the soft spot just beneath his chest, stunning him. She quickly followed up with a palm-heel into the side of his jaw with her front hand, wrapped her fingers around his chin and pulled up to expose his throat. Barely keeping her killer instinct in check, she jabbed his throat with her free hand with enough force to scare him, but not quite enough to cave in his esophagus.

Were this an enemy combatant on the field, she'd have left them to suffocate to death and decompose anonymously where they fell. With him being a fellow highschool student, she had to disengage in a safer manner, and reluctantly resorted to the most non-lethal takedown she knew.

She dropped to a knee, grabbing a leg as she did so, and put a foot behind the other as she stood back up. Mukuro then grabbed his throat instinctively, paused when she realized what she was doing, and received a punch to the gut to reward her hesitation.

While the strike did very little against her solid abdomen, she was pained from offering the rare moment of humanity to the ungrateful brute. Nonetheless, her hand slid down from his neck to the collar of his tanktop and grabbed a handful, at which point she punched him into the ground.

Brushing herself off, she stepped over his splayed arms and legs, wordlessly walking out the door, followed by the loudest silence she had heard since being out in the field. Exiting into the hallway, Mukuro turned towards the entrance hall and sped to the only logical place left to search, keeping her eyes lowered as hushed voices started up behind her. _Fuck, fuck, fuck…_ She looked up from time to time, making sure she wasn't bumping into anyone, and eventually came to a stop several paces behind a very agitated boy who was pulling desperately at the double doors.

She recognized Naegi immediately; his humble height and rather unconventional style of wearing his uniform gave him away when looked at from behind. Mukuro watched him with a hand clamped over her mouth, trying her hardest not to laugh and give away her position. _This is comedy gold, this boy has no idea how things work in this school, does he?_

The alien sensation of a giggle reverberated in her throat, and she swallowed hard to stifle it. _Come on, let's at least pretend to be composed. Say something clever, make him relax, give him his ID, and end the conversation with something that can be picked back up tomorrow. Yeah, solid plan. Okay, let's do this, the entry is key!_

What she didn't realize was that he had noticed her standing behind him, and her eyes that had locked on to the back of his head were now boring into his. Mukuro had been staring at him for a considerable amount of time before her brain registered what she was seeing. Her eyes widened and her mind raced. _Stick to the plan!_

"What, do I have something on my face?" she started, crossing her arms to add to the effect, "I doubt it, seeing how I've yet to even have lunch!"

She forced a lighthearted laugh, and it came out much differently than what she intended. To her surprise, Naegi took a step back and glared at her, tightening his grip on his bag defensively.

"You're not getting a single yen off me," came his reply, "Why would you take from me if you can go home and eat without ruining anyone's day?"

_I don't think I could have messed that up any more if I tried, wow. Damage control…!_

Clearing her throat, she ignored his unusually hostile response and nodded to the door, saying as casually as possible, "It looks like you're having trouble with the door. Do you always have this much difficulty operating day-to-day appliances?"

He perked up faintly at her mention of the door. Cautiously, he turned to the doors behind him and said, with a softer voice, "I don't know what's going on, I think we're locked in..."

He sounded afraid, and Mukuro decided to capitalize on that. She held up a hand and wiggled her fingers. "Ever try grabbing and pulling them? Here, let me take a crack at it."

She stepped up to the doors and discreetly took out her ID, sticking it in the suspicious slot just below the handle and inwardly cheered when her ID flashed once with a green light. Without him noticing, she slipped it back into her pocket and pulled the handle with her pinky finger. Disbelief was painted all over Naegi's face, who stared after her as she mockingly flexed an arm with a smirk.

"Pretty good, huh? Being physically fit really opens doors for you." _Oh hey, that was good!_

Naegi visibly deflated, clearly at a loss for words. Then he shook his head and smiled to the point where he even laughed a bit.

"I was getting worked up over nothing, I thought we were trapped in here like prisoners or something like that. After everything that happened today, I wouldn't put it past Enoshima… So what did you do?"

He was now making eye contact, peering at her quizzically. A pang of guilt shot through her at that, but she quickly shoo'd it away. There wasn't any way of him knowing what she did, and thinking in context, it was clear what he was referring to. _You've got nerves of steel, don't let this guy throw you off._

Mukuro just raised an eyebrow at him and said, "You don't listen often when a girl talks, do you? Junko was going off for twenty minutes about the 'cool features' of these hunks of junk." She pulled out his electronic ID from within her coat pocket and held it out for him to see. Naegi briefly narrowed his eyes at it before patting himself down, nervously searching for what was right in front of him.

"This one's yours, dork!" she remarked, rolling her eyes as she tossed it to him, "You really should be more careful with your things. A lesser person wouldn't have bothered going out of their way to get this to you."

Barely managing to catch it, Naegi tucked the thing away securely before looking sheepishly at Ikusaba, a shy smile playing at his mouth. His face was tinted with a faint blush, and he cleared his throat before he began fumbling with words. Ikusaba couldn't help but stare at his lips as they opened and closed rhythmically as he spoke. She managed to tear away and focus on his long-winded apology just as it was coming to an end.

"... and I had assumed that you, you know, were going to try to rough me up for some money like those cut-and-paste antagonists in those mangas. I'm sorry for that, I know that you're actually a good pers-"

Ikusaba laughed out loud at this point, shaking her head and waving away at him._ This is too cute, he might actually be scared of me!_ She crossed her arms and regarded him for a second.

"You need more backbone, quit apologizing! People are capable of dealing with inconveniences just fine. If you go out of your way to roll over and show your belly to everyone, not only can they not grow as people, but you lose respect for yourself, whether you realize it or not."

Naegi listened with a solemn look on his face, nodding slowly at her words. They stood in silence for a moment before he spoke up.

"Wow, Ikusaba. That's… I never thought about it like that. You must have gone through a lot to have to come to have an outlook like that."

He paused for a moment, then cleared his throat. "You know, it's still very early in the day, and we have that assignment… Since we all got out earlier than expected, you must have some free time, right? Maybe we could go somewhere and take notes on each other. It could even be fun, if you want it to be. There's a cool arcade next to this popular restaurant..."

Mukuro's heart skipped a beat at that. _Oh hell yeah, that sounds like a blast! I can't remember the last time I played the dance game! I've gone once some years ago, but it was with… my sister…_ Her back stiffened, and her smile disappeared, giving way to a scowl. _Fuck! I forgot, I have to report in and watch over the headmaster for my sister._

"I can't," she said flatly. Inside she was kicking the wall in frustration, but on the outside she kept a cool front. "We'll have to do the assignment through chat."

Naegi looked at her with an expression that screamed disappointment, but he too was able to pretend to take it in stride.

"O-oh… well, okay. I won't insist, but why can't you-"

She couldn't bear to drag it out any longer. The social life she wanted, feared, envied, for so long was in front of her, just out of her reach. The leash that had led her to this moment, however, was jerking her back, and she was in no position to resist. He finally warms up to me and now I have to do this. Goddamnit!

"I... I can't focus when you talk in person. That's why. I need to go, catch you tomorrow."

Mukuro's head was pounding when she looked away, and it was all she could do to keep tears of frustration out of her eyes. The hallway seemed to stretch longer and longer as she trudged back to the flight of stairs through the throng of ogling students. It was like walking through molasses, and she had fight for self-control with each step that she took away from her potential friend. Eventually she reached the stairwell, and looked back over her shoulder toward the entrance.

Unable to make out any absurd brown hair-antenna from where she stood, she sighed and began her ascent.

* * *

**Author's Note**: Hey, guys! I was not expecting this story to receive as many visitors and followers as it did, and you've saved the fanfiction from impending doom. You're probably wondering why this one took so long to publish, given that it's not particularly long itself. That is because of preparations for school, and time spent training at my academy. My semester started on Monday, and I'm still rushing to get everything settled in terms of money and schedule.

Ikusaba's fight scene is one I've had to do myself, though it wasn't in a cafeteria, it was out on the street. With that excerpt I hope to give some of my readers a basic idea of what it's like to be in that kind of situation, so that you can defend yourself appropriately if the need arises. Fear and hesitation will get you hurt, whereas action will minimize the potential harm. Remember that you're the good guys, so don't hurt your attacker more than you have to. If you have the chance to run, then take it. I care for each and every one of you, and urge you to take up a self-defense class at some point.

This intermission will be followed by the next chapter in one month, if all goes as planned. I'll be writing it bit by bit between classes, breaks at work, and late nights after class, and hope to keep the quality consistent. You deserve more than half-assed romance.

As always, critique and suggestions are always welcome. I plan to see you again next month.


	4. No No Apologies

**No No Apologies**

Part 3

* * *

Naegi lay on the bed in his dimly lit room, arms crossed behind his head. His mind felt thick and slow, which was mostly due to his going straight to sleep as soon as he got home. Exhaustion had whittled away at him the moment he was off the campus grounds - once the adrenaline and mind-numbing fear had worn off, he had become aware of how little energy he had left. The events of the day spun around in his head incessantly, mercilessly - not for a moment could he take a reprieve and forget.

The faces of the unchosen students, contorted with fear and outrage, had burnt into his brain, and they were all he could see when he closed his eyes. Cries of fury, of hundreds of voices rising up in uneven unison, could hardly wash out the blare of the sirens that rang out in the other corner of his head.

This mess of images and sounds, as horrible as it was, did nothing to conceal his own repulsive thoughts. _Why am I so calm after all that... when it could just as easily have happened to me? If I had done what I wanted to do and ran away…_

He groaned and rolled over onto his stomach, burying his face and continuing to make noise into the pillow. It was only six o'clock in the evening, and the ClassChat feature went live at seven. He couldn't even keep himself preoccupied with the company of friends until much later. The atmosphere in the school wasn't right for inviting people out to lunch, he realized. Ikusaba's response was a clear indication of the fact, and it wasn't something he wanted to think about again. The topic simply brought too much embarrassment for him to bear.

Naegi figured he might as well look outside his window to pass the time, knowing full well that his mind would float off to who knows where and the time for talking would come only too soon. With a mighty groan he rolled off his bed and got to his feet, his entire body sore from laying still for so long. Lumbering over to his window, he propped himself up with his elbows and rested his head against the glass, scanning the streets for something - anything - to occupy his mind.

Aside from lonely figures crawling up and down for as far as he could see, nothing stood out. Truly, this city was remarkable only for being in the presence of the towering school building, to which his eyes naturally gravitated. Even as a dim silhouette against the setting sun, Hope's Peak Academy looked incredible.

Never in his wildest dreams would Naegi have imagined actually setting foot inside, let alone as a student. It was with a pang of guilt that he recalled the vast majority who didn't make it in when they were mere footsteps from the door. Out if everyone in Japan, he was picked to participate, and out of all those incredible students, he was handpicked to stay. Indeed, the source of his guilt, he realized, was the sense of relief he felt that it wasn't he who was kicked out.

Had Ikusaba not dragged him inside at that critical moment, he'd have ended up just like them - without dignity, without a school to go to, without hope. Naegi gulped. _Not to mention, those sirens… That was the police! What could they possibly have been doing to make those students scream like that?_ The street had been littered with broken pencils, torn notebooks, and even the odd scrap of cloth. The city police was the most well-reputed public service, even more so than the emergency services like the firefighters and ambulances. Local rumors said that the entire police force was currently headed and run by a graduate from Hope's Peak, which would explain why their operations are always so smooth and with minimal violence.

For this reason, Naegi couldn't imagine that anything endangering could have taken place there, not out in public, and definitely not against students. _Still… those screams… they weren't angry, they were afraid! What happened out there?_

Naegi checked the clock - all that despairing thought, and yet only a minute had passed. This isn't working… I need to take a walk. That'll be more than enough, and I could use the exercise after laying around for so long.

He slipped into his shoes and shut the door behind him as he left his room. Padding softly down the stairs, he kept an ear out for signs of his parents. They generally were fine with him leaving at this time of night, but preferred that he not be late for dinner. Being a compliant boy, he kept his outings short enough to make it back in time. He didn't hear anything happening in the kitchen, and figured that dinner was still a long ways away. Relieved, he hurried to the door and gasped as he bumped into his sister, who was sleepily coming out of the family room.

"E-eh!? Watch where you're going, Makoto! One of these day's you'll kill me, geezie!" she cried out indignantly, rubbing the back of her head tearfully.

Naegi quickly apologized and made sure that her head had no bumps on it. He had pushed her into the wall, and her head connected with it, producing a loud thunk! Probing gently with his fingertips around the spot she was pointing at, he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. Satisfied that she wasn't hurt, he kissed the top of her head and smiled sheepishly at her.

"See? All fine, you're a tough girl, right?" he said, drawing a snort and a pout from her.

"Yeah, I know that!" she snapped. Then, after a pause, "Where are you going? I was just about to order pizza with the money Mom left. Do you want anything special on it?"

Naegi frowned at that. Huh? We never order pizza unless we're home alone…

"Where's Mom? Are our parents home?"

"Eh? They're at your school, attending some weird PTA meeting. Some girl came by earlier today inviting them. We're home alone till eight, I think."

This came as a shock. There was no mention, nor any notification of a meeting with his parents. While it made sense for his parents to have to go through something like that, he didn't know why he himself wasn't told to notify them. In any case, this development opened up his evening considerably.

"I wasn't told anything about that, weird… I definitely would have heard about that… Hey, I was on my way out. Can you watch the house while I'm gone? Will you be okay if I'm not here for about fifteen minutes?"

She rolled her eyes, saying, "This is coming from my brother who just got done telling me I'm a tough girl. I'll be fine, nothing ever happens around here anyway. Go do what you need to do, I won't even tell Mom." The last part came with a mischievous wink, though Naegi hardly appreciated the accusation. _What do middle-school girls get up to?_

Naegi shot her a grateful smile as he walked past her and out the door, calling out as he did so, "Make sure there's no garlic, onions or olives on the pizza!"

He shut the door just as she began to complain. "But that's all the stuff _I_ li-!"

Naegi closed his eyes with a grin and breathed in the fresh evening air, smiling to himself as he ambled out onto the street. This is what I needed, some outdoor time. He slipped his hands into his hoodie, contently meandering down the street.

At this time of the day, there was practically zero activity - even in the mornings this neighbourhood was relatively quiet compared to the rest of the city. It was in the solitude of the suburbs that he could unwind and hum out parts of his favorite songs, bob side to side, and generally act goofy without fear of being seen. For as long as he could remember, this stretch of the city belonged to him, seeing how nobody claimed it for themselves to begin with.

This was the last place he would have ever expected to be in danger.

Naegi patted himself down, worried that he'd forgotten something at home. Sure enough, all he had in his pockets were his student ID and some dusty old lint. He had gotten used to the weight of the ID, and somewhere along the line he'd subconsciously discarded his trusty flip-phone.

Naegi exhaled sharply at his carelessness. He disliked walking aroudn withing being able to get in touch with family or friends. He figured that since he was practically at the halfway mark for his usual rounds, it would be a good idea to turn around. The sun had set a while ago, and the city relied on its streetlights for seeing. He pulled out his ID and checked the time. He sighed. _Only fifteen minutes have passed, huh? I'll just circle around this next block to kill a bit more time._

Lost in his thoughts, he failed to see the person standing a few yards down the street from him. As he approached, a hand shot out at his chest and jarred him to a halt. He snapped out of his daze immediately and blinked in confusion at the feminine form before him. _Wha..? Who's this?_

A small part of him began getting excited at the familiarity of the situation. "Ikusaba…?" he started, a faint, eager smile pulling at his mouth.

He was interrupted by an icy, malicious voice, "You conceited little fuck..! You expected me to jump out of your way and grovel, didn't you? I was supposed to defer to motherfucking senpai-sama, right?"

As she spoke, she pushed him back over and over with increasing aggression. He could barely stay on his feet, she kept rocking him back onto his heels. Finally, however, he planted his foot behind himself and managed to push her back. Alarm rushed through his mind from the alien sensation of striking a living, breathing body._ This definitely isn't Ikusaba. There's no way I could've stopped her like that._

His reaction brought them to a pause, and he sized up her silhouette with steadily rising alarm. She wasn't much taller than him, but she was obviously stronger. Her face was concealed by her hoodie, and her stance suggested that she wasn't done with him. Instead of attacking him again, however, she began shouting.

"Why is it that _you_ got to stay and not _me_?" she roared, stamping her foot, "You, who got in by fucking chance, and not by fucking _merit_?"

She was shaking visibly, and Naegi was much more afraid than before. This girl was one of the rejected SHSL students, and he had no idea what her talent was. His life was potentially in grave danger, and there was no one around to bail him out.

_Hold on…! She's a human being, I can talk to her._

After what seemed like an unbearably long pause, he cleared his throat and spoke.

"I-i know that you're upset, but please, listen…!" he said cautiously. He tried speaking soothingly, but not condescendingly, as that would get her upset even quicklier, "I'm just as confused about what happened this morning as you are, I don't even know why I was chosen out of all of those students! If I knew how, I'd switch places with you in a heartbeat…"

His voice trailed off when he saw her deflate at his words, her head lowering as her shoulders slumped. Her body jerked softly to accompany what sounded like sobs, though Naegi was sure she wasn't in a crying mood. His sister wouldn't cry so soon after being upset with him, and so he figured most girls were like that.

"This is rich… this is _really_ fucking rich… As one of the few who have the privilege of attending this private school, you don't even want to BE there? How can you be so _ungrateful_?".

_This isn't what I wanted to say! Why did I panic mid-sentence…!?_

"All my friends… every single one I had met today… They're all being hospitalized." Her words hung in the air, and he didn't know how to respond. "As soon as that horrible girl told us to leave, those… cops... swarmed the streets."

She didn't seem to be focusing on Naegi at all, and although he desperately wanted to run away, this was possibly the only chance he had to find out just what happened that morning. He swallowed hard and took a tentative step forward.

"What did the policemen do?" he asked quietly, "I could hear screaming even from inside the school, and there must have been about twenty different sirens going off at once. I've never heard anything like it!"

Wrapping her arms around herself, she answered, "Those people… those weren't policemen. Those were thugs in cop cars. The girl, she had told us to leave, but…"

Her throat caught before she could continue, "It was a fucking _roadblock_. We were surrounded on both sides, there was no possible way for the crowd to leave on foot! Before I could even see that we were trapped, they _fired_ on us with rubber bullets! I happened to be in the center of the cluster, so I wasn't hit then."

"Everyone was running everywhere. It was complete chaos! Once enough students were on the ground, they started climbing in over the barricades, with... bats and pipes…"

Her voice had taken on a distant tone, and Naegi was certain that she was reliving the morning. He didn't have to see her face to be able to imagine the haunted expression. He stayed silent and waited for her to keep talking, but only out of a sense of obligation. The brutality of it was already sounding to be too cruel to be true.

"This big one was coming up to me, ready to break my legs like with everyone else… But then - oh, Satoshi, you imbecile - my friend pulled me back as he was swinging and took a blow to the head. Like an idiot, I stood there watching him writhe on the ground, and that gave the fucker a chance to practically blind me. He dumped half a canister of mace into my face before I was dragged off by a group of students."

Her voice changed into a grim monotone, "I'm the only one who got away today. I know it. It's because of my skills as SHSL Parkour that I could escape the barricade, navigate the rooftops and outrun them while half-blind."

Naegi's heartbeat escalated quickly, and it continued to do so as she pulled something out of her pocket. She held up a small pocketknife in her fist for Naegi to see, and his blood froze the moment his brain registered what she meant to do.

"I'm the hero of this riot, because I'm the one who will reveal this incident to the city. The brutal beatdown of hundreds of students by its own police force, instigated by Hope's Peak Academy! But no one fucking listens to me…! Even Satoshi's parents… they insist that they don't have any kids of their own, even though I saw a boxed lunch spill out of his bag with my _own eyes_… I'm so sorry that it's come to this."

The girl drew a foot back, easing into a fighting stance, and Naegi began retreating, a scream building in his throat.

"Since you're under their protection, you're one of the bad guys now. If I kill one of the most widely known students in Japan, there will be an uproar! There will be an investigation, and that means the school's activities will be kept under surveillance. Keichi Nagou will be known as the one who _survived_, and she will be the one who fucking _destroys_ this fucked up institution!"

With that, she lunged forward with the blade pointed at his chest, and Naegi threw up his hands in panic, turning away as he screamed loudly at her to stay away from him.

OH MY GOD, SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME! I DON'T WANT TO DIE. I DON'T WANT TO DIE. I DON'T WANT TO DIE.

A burning, stinging sensation shot through his wrists as the sharp edge slid across them. Kimichi slashed once, twice, three times at his neck, but Naegi had turtled up, leaving his wrists even more cut up. It felt like his arms were on fire, while his back was being hosed with ice water. He couldn't see anything, his eyes were instinctively shut tight.

I'M GOING TO DIE. SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME. I DON'T WANT TO DIE. HELP… HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!

"Hold still, fuck! It doesn't have to hurt, just… one… slice! _I said hold still_!" she hissed as she shredded away at his sleeves.

Keichi suddenly jumped at him, planted both shoes on his chest, and launched into a backflip. Outweighing him, the force of the her feat sent Naegi falling like a mop. His head smacked into the concrete, sending his mind into a blank, and it was there that he began to accept the futility of fighting back. She was too strong. His arms felt like lead, and the night sky was spinning too fast for his liking. He felt Kimichi straddling him.

_It hurts… everything hurts… I'm so tired… I don't want it to hurt…_

Naegi weakly looked up at the stranger who so badly wanted him dead, and wondered if she would succeed. He's a nobody among a school of legends, and she's a revolutionary for a righteous cause. _She's suffered so much, and has so much work to do._

He suddenly noticed a figure approaching them from across the street, bringing his mind back to focus immediately. This highschool girl wanted to kill him out on the street, and Naegi was nearly going to accept it. _Why... why am I just rolling over...? I want to live!_ He grit his teeth and stared defiantly at her, trying not to give away whoever was coming. _Can he see us…? Will he save me?_ His own face must have revealed something; the girl turned around quickly, sat motionlessly for a second, and sprung to her feet.

"You..! _You fucker, I'll kill you_!" she roared at the figure who was still dark and indistinguishable to Naegi, and ran at him. There was a struggle, accompanied by the clatter of metal on pavement. Newfound energy rushed through his body, and with a great deal of effort he was able to prop himself up on an elbow.

The fighting had taken to the ground, with the figure now in plain view before Naegi. With one knee on the girl, a large, muscular man dressed in a sleeveless police uniform was raining punches down on her. His features were concealed by a clumsy-looking headpiece, with a sinister, cartoonish bear face painted on the front. Keichi called out to him even as the large fists crashed against her raised arm..

"He dropped his gun, it's right there! Shoot the fucker, he's one of the guys who beat the shit out of those students! He's an evil, dirty cop! Prove to me that we're on the same side!"

Only a few feet away from him lay a pistol, and the interlocked brawlers turned to look at him, frozen in place to see what he would do. Naegi's head pounded as he clambered over to grab it, and only when he had his hand slapped over it did he stop to think, though it was clear from the beginning what he had chosen to do.

Gripping the thing tightly, he lifted his head to look at his rescuer, tears streaming down his face.

With a choked sob, "Stop her! I don't want to die…!"

Her hood had fallen off, and Naegi saw the girl's eyes widen as he tossed the gun behind him.

"Motherfucking…! I knew it! I _knew_ you were just like them!"

She tried to buck the bear-man off by kicking at his face, but he wordlessly caught her foot and sharply twisted it, snapping her ankle. She screamed defiantly, and somehow managed to knock him backwards, getting to her feet to escape. Even with a crippling injury she was able to move quickly, but the man was slowly stepping into his car to give chase. Without her ability to scale buildings, it was only a matter of time before she would be caught. Naegi didn't intend to see the conflict through to its resolution, and shakily rose to his feet. Her screams continued to echo down the lonely streets as he turned tail.

* * *

He sprinted back home with his heart still pounding like a drum, tears stinging at his eyes, and his arms slowly losing feeling. Running through the the concrete streets, the slaps of his shoes against the pavement boomed within his aching head. Naegi didn't care that his voice had turned high-pitched, or that he was gasping loudly, he only cared about being inside his house, in his room, in bed.

Naegi stumbled on his way up to the porch, literally on all fours by the time he got to the doorknob. He entered, saw that nobody was around to see him, and raced up the stairs as he stripped off his bloodied jacket.

Around half an hour later, Naegi's electronic ID card began buzzing and bleeping, snapping him out of his absent-minded stupor. With cumbersomely twitchy fingers, he opened up his ClassChat application, and surprise shot through his mind.

He already had a pile of messages waiting for him, but they were only from two different people. The first one was called "Hope's Peak Head", and he opened that one first.

"_Big sister is always watching you, Naegi_!" the chatlog read, "_If ever you're in trouble, you can sure as hell count on me to find out and get to you! I heard everything that the rowdy ex-student had said, including the bit where she told you to shoot a school security guard. It's hard to surprise me, but you went and even managed to impress me with your loyalty to Hope's Peak_!"

"_Do me a favor, and don't talk about this to anyone else. We don't want this getting out of hand and stirring up a panic, do we? Let the school police take care of this_."

Naegi stared blankly at this mass of texts, feeling an unshakeable sense of dread creep over him. A lot of this sounded threatening, but he couldn't quite determine why. Enoshima-san was listening in on him the entire time, judging from the contents of the message. Lacking the energy to tackle the implications of this realization, he sleepily pulled up the second chatlog.

_Wha..! Ikusaba-san!_

"_Naegi! Answer me as soon as you get this! I want you to tell me everything you know about the incident earlier this evening. If you're hurt at all, let me know. There were a lot of sirens blaring where I am._

_..._

_Also… Hi. No doubt you're pissed off about earlier today, but I really was busy with some prior commitments. I'm not going to hold my breath, but... I'm up for anything if we agree on something with advance notice_."

He was at a complete loss for words. Naegi didn't know what to say, or what constituted an appropriate response in this situation. He had to say_ something_, however - to give in to sleep now would be incredibly offensive to any person showing concern for his well-being.

_Wait… how did she find out I was involved? I didn't say a word to anyone - I didn't even have access to ClassChat before now!_

The questions began to pile up in his head, but he didn't have the heart to confront her while she expressed these sentiments._ Besides, I'm way too tired to start up pointless conflict._ As that thought bubbled out of his head, he gave a mighty yawn, nearly passing out on the spot. He decided to pace around the room, rather than linger on his bed.

He feebly pushed himself up and looked down at his wrists. The slices had finally stopped bleeding, though his entire forearm was developing overly tender bruises around the cuts. His head continued to ache, as did his chest. Aside from moderate shaking in his fingers, however, he had no trouble moving his body. _I guess I caught a lucky break..._

He focused back on addressing Ikusaba and shrugging away sleepiness.

"_Hi, Ikusaba_!" Naegi started, but he hesitated for a second, unsure if he should confide in her the night's events. He flipped a coin to decide - once for heads, once for tails, and once again for heads. All three times, it came up to telling her what happened.

"_I'm… not okay. Not at all. But I'm alive, so that's one point in my favor!" he continued, "I'm not sure how much you heard… or how you heard at all, but... I was attacked by someone with a knife. I nearly died, but a policeman from Hope's Peak happened to come by to save me_."

There was a long pause, and finally she answered, "_Do you know anything about your attacker? Did they talk to you beforehand_?"

A flicker of annoyance played at the back of his head. It didn't sound like she was quite as worried as she initially said. He flipped the coin three more times to convince himself to volunteer any more information. "_Yeah, we talked. She said that she was one of the students who was rejected from this morning's entrance ceremony, and that she's… the only 'survivor' of the_ _incident."__  
_

He paused after sending the last text, embarrassed that he was talking about something like this with seriousness_, "She might have been crazy, though, I don't know if I can trust a word she said. I mean, she tried to kill me, after all._"

Naegi waited for a response, but it was a long time in coming. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes passed until she responded, "_I say we get together tomorrow, lunch is on me_."

Naegi glared incredulously at the screen, shocked at how little to do with what he just said her invitation was. "_No. No, I don't think so. __That's not much of an advance notice_."

A quick response came this time, "_I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to insist. It could even be fun_."

With a huge sigh, he gave in. She clearly had something in store for him, he wasn't oblivious to that. It also sounded like she was trying to be goofy, but he couldn't be sure. "_Alright, Ikusaba. It sounds like a plan. Hey, while we're talking, why don't we get that assignment out of the way_?"

After a pause, she replied, "_We'll have plenty of time for that tomorrow. You've earned yourself an extension, don't you think? Get some sleep and tell our homeroom teacher what happened tomorrow_."

Rubbing at his eyes, he reluctantly agreed with her. Even his brisk pacing was doing a number on him, and he landed heavily on his bed with a grunt._ Uh oh, getting sleepy. I'd better say bye before I'm out cold._

He sent her a polite goodnight text, and some time after he drifted off, his ID blipped.

"_Hey, are you still awake?_

...

_No, I didn't think so..._

_Goodnight, Naegi._

_I'm glad that you made it through the night, and that you're okay_."

* * *

End of Part 3


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